RALEIGH, NC.-The Potter’s Eye: Art and Tradition in North Carolina Pottery, a landmark exhibition highlighting the state’s most distinguished traditional potters, opens at the North Carolina Museum of Art on October 30, 2005. The show will run through March 19, 2006. The Potter’s Eye features the work of six living North Carolina potters in addition to masterpieces from the 19th century, highlighting contemporary work and demonstrating historic and aesthetic linkages with early work from Europe, Asia and America.

Co-curated by potters Mark Hewitt and Nancy Sweezy and Museum staff member George Holt, The Potter’s Eye considers important connections between old and new pots and the artistic importance of the North Carolina pottery tradition.

“This exhibition is significant for the State of North Carolina and for the renowned North Carolina pottery tradition,” said Museum Director Lawrence J. Wheeler. “The Potter’s Eye recognizes North Carolina pottery as a rich and respected art form that has been flourishing here for two centuries.”

The North Carolina folk pottery tradition has deep roots tracing back to the mid-18th century. The vibrant tradition grew up in the central part of the state, where folk potters still use local clays; ash, salt and alkaline glazes; and wood-fired kilns.

The 19th-century Tradition - Examples of 19th-century works by master potters are included in The Potter’s Eye. The exhibition features pots by Daniel Seagle, David Hartzog, Solomon Loy, Timothy Boggs, Nicholas and Himer Fox, members of the Webster and Craven families, and many others.

As utilitarian objects now also admired for their aesthetic qualities, these early pots show close attention to form as well as function. They are strong and sturdy yet naturally elegant. Some possess gracefully formed handles and others show deftly incised lines. These works are both restrained in their earth-toned color palettes and dynamic in their pooled glazes and superficial cracks (the result of coarse clay and extreme firings). Rippled surfaces serve as tangible and lasting memories of the turning of the potter’s wheel, recording the process of creation.

Nineteenth-century pottery from North Carolina merits comparison with earlier pots found in England, Germany, New England, South Carolina, China, Korea and Japan. The exhibition includes pertinent examples from each of these regions to demonstrate the connections and variations among traditions.

Contemporary Potters - Using 19th-century work as a point of departure, The Potter's Eye traces the North Carolina tradition to the present day and present 21st-century potters whose pots reveal 19th-century stylistic influence.

Works by contemporary potters Kim Ellington, Mark Hewitt, Ben Owen III, Pam Owens, Vernon Owens and David Stuempfle demonstrate the persistence of tradition and the longevity of the forms, techniques and materials that were used in the 19th century. Subtle tweaks to tradition, however, distringuish the work of these potters as distinctively modern.

Like their 19th-century predecessors, the 21st-century pots vary in shape, color and size. Still, each pot is proportioned perfectly, one part cogently blending with the next, creating an organic but unified composition. Simple yet dignified, the pots approach sculpture in their well-executed forms.

While the forms of the pots are reminiscent of earlier traditions, their surface attributes are thoroughly modern in expression and execution. Etched and colorful, many of the contemporary pots reach new expressive heights and deftly accentuate form, shape and pattern.